A digital glance at the historian's craft

final draft

So, here we are at the end of the semester and here is my draft of the Historical Atlas. As you can see, apart from the title of the project, I didn’t add any meaningful text to the content of the Atlas. I did this partly because I wanted to check the whole design of the atlas prior to engaging into the pursuit of textual wisdom. In addition, I think that this will allow me to check the power of my images. Wasn’t it the point of this course to analyze how images can be arguments in themselves? Nevertheless, I will acknowledge that any fault in the interpretation of this document belongs to me.

For this project, I used a couple of images from previous assignments, but I also added some images, which provide a broader perspective on the subject. The map of Eastern Europe from the first page, is supposed to place Moldova in a wider European context. At the same time, since Rybnitsa has gradually became an industrial town, I decided that it will be helpful to place the sugar factory among other industrial enterprises, such as: the cement factory and the steel factory. This will leave some place for a broader comparison in terms of patterns of industrialization on the Soviet and post-Soviet periphery.

For the most part of its history, Rybnitsa was a part of USSR. In economic terms, this meant that the industrial administrators had to comply with the demands of central planning. Indeed, all the economic activity was directed toward the fulfillment of five year plans. Nevertheless, from the pictures of the sugar factory it is possible to observe that during its twentieth century history, there has been numerous adjustments to the architecture of the sugar factory. These adjustments were not always subject to central planning. In the same context, on the last page of my atlas, I will tackle the issue of the mysterious year “1913.” Despite of the fact that Soviet regime sought to erase all the legacy of the previous political regimes, especially in terms of visuals, somehow the inscription “1913” managed to survive on the pipe of the sugar factory.